The Atlas of Disappearing Places: Our Coasts and Oceans in the Climate Crisis

by Christina Conklin, Marina Psaros, Lawrence Susskind (Foreword)

Lit Hub's Most Anticipated of 2021

A beautiful and engaging guide to global warming’s impacts around the world“The direction in which our planet is headed isn't a good one, and most of us don’t know how to change it. The bad news is that we will experience great loss. The good news is that we already have what we need to build a better future.” —from the introductionOur planet is in peril. Seas are rising, oceans are acidifying, ice is melting, coasts are flooding, species are dying, and communities are faltering. Despite these dire circumstances, most of us don’t have a clear sense of how the interconnected crises in our ocean are affecting the climate system, food webs, coastal cities, and biodiversity, and which solutions can help us co-create a better future.

Through a rich combination of place-based storytelling, clear explanations of climate science and policy, and beautifully rendered maps that use a unique ink-on-dried-seaweed technique, The Atlas of Disappearing Places depicts twenty locations across the globe, from Shanghai and Antarctica to Houston and the Cook Islands. The authors describe four climate change impacts—changing chemistry, warming waters, strengthening storms, and rising seas—using the metaphor of the ocean as a body to draw parallels between natural systems and human systems.

Each chapter paints a portrait of an existential threat in a particular place, detailing what will be lost if we do not take bold action now. Weaving together contemporary stories and speculative “future histories” for each place, this work considers both the serious consequences if we continue to pursue business as usual, and what we can do—from government policies to grassroots activism—to write a different, more hopeful story.

A beautiful work of art and an indispensable resource to learn more about the devastating consequences of the climate crisis—as well as possibilities for individual and collective action—The Atlas of Disappearing Places will engage and inspire readers on the most pressing issue of our time.

Locations

Houston, Texas

Shanghai, China

Hamburg, Germany

San Juan, Puerto Rico

New York City, New York

Pisco, Peru

Kisite, Kenya

Kure Atoll, Hawaii

Camden, Maine

The Cook Islands

San Francisco, California

Norfolk, Virginia

Bến Tre, Vietnam

Ise, Japan

Gravesend, United Kingdom

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Science, Climate Change, Nature, Ecology, Social Justice

235 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 20, 2021

Reviews

[Mehtap exotiquetv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was sind die Treiber der anthropogenen Klimakrise und welche Regionen dieser Welt werden sie beeinflussen. Dieser Atlas zeigt die möglichen Auswirkungen, die Regionen wie Peru, Deutschland, USA, China und so weiter treffen würde.
Es gibt zu jedem dieser Länder ein mögliches Szenario aus der Sicht von 2050.
Dieser kompakte Atlas ist ein must-read.

[Lisa Konet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a grim and depressing glimpse into the realities of what is happening to our planet and what should be done to make drastic changes. This book is a wake-up call, for sure. It is necessary reading and should be taken seriously. I am not so worried for myself about the current conditions on the planet, but living in California now, wildfires are a very real threat. I am more concerned for my young nephews and then when they have children. What will living conditions be like on the planet? How many trees will be left (that are vital for oxygen)? Will there be any polar ice left or will coastal states and countries be mostly underwater?

This topics in this book and what is discussed are heavy strong global issues. Recommended reading for everyone.

Buying this at publishing to add to my climatology collection.

Thanks to Netgalley, Christina Conklin, Maria Psaros and The New Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 7/31/21

[Jasmine Hosein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started and finished this in pretty much one sitting. If you have any ounce of climate anxiety, don’t be me and read this when you’re not in the greatest place emotionally.

Do some deep breathing, pet a cat, look at the blue sky, touch grass AND then come back and read this.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a while to get through this because it’s heavy material, but it’s an important read. It’s also beautiful illustrated.

[Sobia A Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of great yet awful information about what we've done to the planet and what will happen. The end of each section has a synopsis of what the area will look like in 2050. Really depressing.

[M.H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like any atlas should, this beautiful, thoughtful book takes the reader on an around-the-world adventure with fascinating maps and vivid descriptions. But rather than being wondrous and fun, this adventure is sad and harrowing, yet tells a story that absolutely needs to be told. Detailing the grave affects that human-caused climate change is wreaking on our planet's oceans and coasts, its chapters focus on specific places, using local cases to detail the many issues with more stories than data, and with more metaphor than numbers. The unique maps and drawings subtly challenge the idea of boundaries and borders inherent to most atlases, leaving the sense that the ocean's problems do not end at any beach or political divide. The problems explored are enormous, and the future seems bleak, but the Atlas also challenges the reader to have hope and to be bold, and to no longer let this growing, developing, staggering issue be ignored, or worse, denied.
The authors provide a powerful quote from Bruno Latour that sums up this challenge: "The time is past for hoping to 'get through it.' We're going to have to get used to it. It's definitive. The imperative confronting us, therefore, is to discover a course of treatment--but without the illusion that a cure will come quickly."
Recommended for: Every coffee table, every public and school library, and every desk of every politician.
Thanks to Goodreads Giveaways for a copy of this book.

[Jes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bleak but necessary look at what climate change is doing and will do in the future to our planet. Sadly multiple sections are already outdated with the advance of climate change progressing so much quicker in places than predicted. While the idea behind the artwork in the book is wonderful, in practice the maps and illustrations are so vague and hard to read as to often be useless at conveying information. Having one illustration per section and including clear visualized maps and data for everything else would have been a great help. Then there's the future projection 2050 sections. Tonally they are so off of the rest of the book, which is much closer to a high school textbook than an overly optimistic fantasy projection of humanity wildly changing it's nature in the next 28 years. I admire the aims of this book but I fear it's missed the mark.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE ATLAS OF DISAPPEARING PLACES by Christina Conklin and Marina Psaros is all about “Our Coasts and Oceans in the Climate Crisis.” Conklin (an artist, writer, and researcher) and Psaros (a sustainability expert who works with NOAA and USGS) have created an absolutely breathtaking set of illustrations. They chose to focus on about twenty locations around the world (including Camden, Maine; Houston, Texas; Ben Tre, Vietnam; and Gravesend, United Kingdom). For each, they include a map which was created with water-soluble inks on dried “sea lettuce” and digitally layered onto a Google Earth image. Also in each chapter is an exploration of a key term (technology, vulnerability, resilience) related to climate change; plus, graphs, data, and a “speculative vignette about the future.” In a New York Times interview, Psaros says, “using art and storytelling to talk about the science and policy, was a way to hopefully make the issue more accessible to a broader range of people.” Students and faculty will be enthralled – and hopefully prompted to act. Extensive notes, image sources, and a helpful index are included.

Although changes (in ocean chemistry, extreme weather, warming waters and rising sea levels) along the coasts is the focus of THE ATLAS OF DISAPPEARING PLACES , Dan Egan has written an excellent feature for The New York Times about Chicago’s struggles with changing water levels: “A Battle between a Great City and a Great Lake.” Also of possible interest is this New Yorker article written by Bill McKibben – it deals with a variety of climate issues and part is an interview with Conklin about creating THE ATLAS OF DISAPPEARING PLACES .

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I continue to read books that are somewhat depressing and yet informative and important regarding climate change, I came across The Atlas of Disappearing Places. The author looks at four impacts of the shifting climate: changing chemistry, warming waters, strengthening storms, and rising seas. By focusing on one particular city/area at a time, the reader can see what is happening and will likely happen in the near future if humans continue on their current path of environmental harm and destruction. I find that so many people don't realize the huge impact that is coming from these changes in our world, or they choose to ignore it. This book shares the information in a format that is easy to understand without a science degree. The unique illustrations, created using an ink-on-dried-seaweed painting technique, allow the reader to see what areas of the world will soon be underwater in an alarming visual representation.

This book is not all sadness and despair, however, as at the end of each section, the authors create a "View from 2050" with how things still can change for a brighter (and drier) future. This imaginative look forward to what could be should bring the reader hope that not all is yet lost. These sections do go on a bit longer than they should, though, and slow down the reading a bit. I think a few of them throughout instead of after every section would have been sufficient.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a big mix of good and bad. The good? The information was necessary and covered geographic areas that aren't always focused on when discussing climate change. The bad? For me it was pretty much everything else. The art was "unique" but often hard to interpret because colors would blend together and make some values indistinguishable from others. The "View from 2050" sections were often a bit positive for my senses; the author said she wanted the futuristic pieces to highlight what could be done with all the technology and information we have and will have, but knowing humans, we will continue to allow big business and lobbyists to pay to cover up info and obfuscate the truth of the situation. I felt that those futuristic sections being so positive might allow readers to believe that the solutions to these climate problems will be easily found within 30 years (because even when species were extinct and lifestyles changed forever, no portrait was completely bleak), when in reality solutions will take sacrifice and radical lifestyle changes for humanity around the world.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a readable and interestingly-illustrated look at several locations experiencing challenges from oceanic and climactic stresses due to climate change. I read it wondering who its audience was. It would not convince any climate denier and I didn't think it would be read by academic and governmental policy wonks. So I decided it could be helpful for a local activist in an area similar to one of the examples, or for a funder to find solutions to fund that he or she might not have thought of. For myself, I looked most closely at the example of NYC since I know most about that one. It was a good summary to several issues there. Each chapter contains a "key term" some of which were helpful to me. Each chapter also contains a hypothetical look forward called "a view from 2050" which is the part that might be helpful for funders and activists. That section was sad for NYC though, since some of the calamities projected for future years have already happened, and none of the remedies is even being considered today, though they are all possible, shamefully for the "capital of capital".

[Fred Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of this book is intriguing. The writing is concise and well researched. I like the idea of including the scenarios. The fact that they were a mix of good and bad outcomes was good. But the illustrations really don't help. I get that they are essentially done on dried seaweed, but whatever message that is trying to bring really gets lost because they just aren't that clear and detract. It's an atlas. It should be easy to read and give you good information. In the end, I am not really sure who the audience for this book is.

[Arend · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good written vignettes with the bad news leavened by "the view from 2050" (often an affirmation that things can change for the better). However, as an atlas it left me often irritated: the choice to use dried sea lettuce as the medium made maps hard to read and interpret. In some cases (like the Spilhaus map) it works very well, but in most cases it left me struggling to understand what was being communicated.

[Tbuikema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creative approach to discussing a wide range of environmental issues, with specific examples from around the globe of challenges, possible mitigations, and likely impacts. Repeatedly eye opening in surprising ways.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I applaud the authors for their unique take on the climate change subject, but I wish they would have spent more time talking about each location affected by climate change rather than including a definition to explain and the hypothetical look into 2050.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of this book but found the content leaving something to be desired. The maps, which are really artwork, I found difficult to understand.

[Emma H · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for my masters degree; very interesting book - sobering but inspiring at the same time